JOHNSON CITY – Jim and Laura Hoover have wanted to open their own business ever since they met in 1998.

Sixteen years later, the couple's dream will finally become a reality.

The Hoovers, who wed in 2002 and live in Port Crane, are planning to open SkinnyLicks, a self-serve shop offering frozen yogurt and ice cream, in mid-August in the new retail center off of Reynolds Road in Johnson City. The shop will be open year round.

"We're just really excited," said Laura Hoover, 38. "The community is excited. People ask us all the time, 'When are you opening?'"

Jim Hoover, with the help of his family, started outfitting the almost 1,800-square-foot space in early July. They now have to install tile, finish up painting and wait for the furniture and machines to arrive.

SkinnyLicks will be the second tenant in the 9,000-square-foot retail center, which resides next to the Dunkin' Donuts.

Metro Mattress, upstate New York's largest mattress retailer, opened July 4 in a 3,200-square-foot spot in the retail center. David Shiroff, president and CEO of Metro Mattress, said in an email that the retailer has three employees assigned to the Johnson City store.

J & T Properties of NY Inc. — a Vestal-based company that also owns the nearby building rented by the Ground Round Grill & Bar and Catskill OTB in Johnson City — is looking to add up to two more tenants in the remaining 4,000 square feet of the retail center.

"I've got some people tentatively lined up, but they're not confirmed," said Tom Bedosky, of J & T Properties. "There's a lot of interest."

The Hoovers started talking to J & T Properties last fall about occupying a spot in the new center. At about that same time, the couple was planning a cruise from New York City to The Bahamas — a trip that was canceled to focus on starting the business.

Once SkinnyLicks opens later this month, the shop will offer frozen yogurt and ice cream — products that will be mixed on site rather than poured out of a carton — homemade waffle cones and the largest regular cones the Hoovers could find. Baked Euphoria Cakes & Pastries in Endwell will also make some toppings for SkinnyLicks, including rainbow cake, peanut butter cookie and oatmeal cranberry.

SkinnyLicks will have five employees, two of whom will be full time.

While an opening date is not yet set in stone, the Hoovers know they are only a matter of weeks away from becoming business owners — a vision that first surfaced in 1998 and intensified in late 2012.

At that time, Laura Hoover was a dental assistant with Dr. Diane Downton on Riverside Drive in Johnson City, and Jim Hoover was a manager at Kost Tire, primarily out of the Upper Front Street location in the Town of Chenango.

"I just looked at him one day and said, 'I'm just not happy doing this,'" Laura Hoover said.

Jim, now 38, replied, "We need to do what we want and start that business up."

Regardless of how SkinnyLicks does, the Hoovers said they will have no regrets in pursuing a 16-year-old dream.

"The way we feel is that if we're 70, and we hadn't done it, we would go, 'Why didn't we?'" Laura Hoover said. "We'd always wonder why."